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In my opinion the only three teams to consider here are Portugal,Germany and Chile. Mexico are in good form but lost to Croatia last week and I can’t see them getting much out of a game against Portugal or Germany.
The last time they played Chile last year they were hammered 7-0 by the Copa America Champions.

My original write-up on Portugal,Germany and Chile is too long so I narrowed it to a list of pros/cons

Portugal

pros – Ronaldo factor
sending a strong team to the tournament
finally proven they can win a big tournament
can win big matches without Ronaldo (Euro final)

cons- could face their bogey team Germany
still too reliant on Ronaldo

Chile

pros – match winner in Alexis Sanchez
decent form in run-up to tournament
sending a strong team

cons- apart from Brazil no team from Asia/Africa/America has ever won a FIFA competition on European soil

Germany

pros – great tournament record
sending players fighting for place in next years World Cup (also con)
massive pool of players to choose from

cons – short time to prepare
no star players
splitting squad between Confed Cup/Euro Under 21 tournament

My initial thought here was for Portugal to lift the trophy but I have a sneak feeling that
the Germans won’t top their group and that would almost certainly lead to a Portugal – Germany
semi-final and the Portuguese just don’t like playing Germany at tournament level.
I think Germany are too short a 9/4 so I’m taking the 4/1 on Chile which offer a good return for a relatively low
stake.

Can’t believe the Germans are still favorites with some firms. After injuries to Sane and Demme they go into this with
a second/third string squad of just 21 players and comments made by the head of German football calling this ‘a tournament with no future’ aren’t exactly morale boosting.

Doing a penalty to be awarded in the Russia 11/4 Portugal 10/3 and second half in the Spain game 9/2 Trixie
Treble pays about 89/1. I did not realise the Spain game was tomorrow until i had placed my bet

Hi gents. Not had anything to offer for a while but like the look of tonight’s MLS card. DC United travel to Toronto on the back of a bad start to their season. Wedged at the bottom of the Eastern conference they’ll face a big ask in Toronto with all the first team players back such as Altidore and Bradley who were on international duty.

Toronto are unbeaten in their last 8 at home with 6 wins in the process. The Atomic Ant (Sebastian Giovinco) hasn’t been as prolific this season, but he is still one of the best players in the MLS and hasn’t had Bradley and Altidore in the line-up together for the last nine games.

While Altidore is also worth a bet I’m taking the free-kick and penalty taker in Giovinco. It’s not often people keep this man out of the goals, other than the injuries that have plagued him this season. Gio played 90 minutes in their loss to New England and has had a nice break to recover, so should be ready to go.

In Thailand:
Chonburi vs Pattaya and Buriram vs Siam Navy
I see a chance of both games finishing with O1.5fhgs and maybe O2,5fhgs
The bets i made are:
Chonburi vs Pattaya
O1.5fhgs @1.95
O2.5fhgs @3.90
Buriram vs Siam Navy
O2.5fhgs @3.75
O3.5fhgs @8.00
Hope it works out well.
Good Luck

Poor first half from Atlanta, Colombus have played them really well and exploiting the gaps in Atlantas high pressing game. Probably the best i’ve seen a side play at Atlanta this season. Hopefully Atlanta dominate more in the second half.

The two best fighters at 175lbs meet again for part 2 tonight following on from last year’s controversial encounter. Many boxing fans and writers believe it should’ve been Kovalev having his hand raised after twelve pulsating rounds at the T-Mobile Arena but the decision went to Ward, the American home country fighter who was awarded a unanimous decision by the THREE American judges at ringside. All of this despite being dropped to the canvas in round 2 and getting pretty much out punched until at least the seventh where it began to level out. There were accusations of politics entering the sport with American and Russian relations not being at their best at the time of the fight so a rematch was called for and here we are seven months later.

Its a classic clash of styles, the sheer brute power of Kovalev versus the technique of Ward. Kovalev hits very hard and in the first bout was visibly wobbling Ward off jabs alone. His major weapon is his right hand and it was a counter right that hit Ward flush on the chin in the second and sent him to the canvas. Kovalev’s right hand will always present a danger in this fight if he connects properly with it. Ward will use his ring smart of holding, going to the body, avoiding shots and looking for openings BUT he will get hit with that right hand at some point. You’d have to think in a twelve round fight (if it even goes the distance) he will get hit with it. In the first fight Ward looked in trouble every time Kovalev properly connected so I’ll be backing Ward to get knocked down at 2/1 with William Hill.

There is a genuine dislike between the fighters which was evident at the press conference a few days ago where they could barely even look at each other before Kovalev walked out of it. He went on record to say he felt he let Ward off the hook in the first fight after being in the early ascendancy and is looking to “kick his ass” tonight. I feel he will be much more clinical after watching the first fight back and I don’t think he’ll want to risk it going to the scorecards again. I see Kovalev going for the KO however if it doesn’t come he may have accumulated one or more 10-8 rounds so if it does go to the judges its likely he’ll win. For that reason I’ll be backing Kovalev to win at 23/17 with Marathon Bet

My earlier comment is still awaiting moderation for some reason.. nothing too dramatic anyway just a re-post of my Confed Cup preview from a couple of weeks ago where I tipped Chile to win the trophy at 4/1.

Russia v New Zealand

Every opening match of the Confed Cup since 1997 (apart from the one in 2009) has seen three or more goals and I fancy the 21/20 for over 2.5 match goals at Bet365.

Scorchio down here on the Costa Del Hull – was going to take Mrs Hull down to The Humber for a spot of skinny dipping but last time she tried that, someone contacted Friends of the Earth who tried to float her back out into deeper water.

It’s taken a bit of scratching around but I’m determined to get a winning run underway and really like the look of one game later on in Peru – it’s a match that features an away team whose form is as bad as mine…

CÉSAR VALLEJO VS. WILLY SERRATO (18.00 KO):

Named after a particularly vigorous masturbation technique involving a cheese grater, the travelling side are in dire form with one (3-2) win in 5 being offset by 4 absolute hidings of
0-4, 4-1, 6-0, 1-4.

That equates to 20 goals conceded in their last 5 and an average of 4 per game – unluckily for Willy, they travel to a 2nd placed Vallejo side who are unbeaten so far this campaign.

The hosts have hit 5, 2 and 7 team goals in their last 3 home games to offer up a 4+ team goal average heading into the game and I can well see Serrato shaking like a sh*tting dog at the prospect of tonight’s game.

Can’t see anything but a secure win for the home side here but markets incredibly limited – Titanbet offer the most appealling option:

Four winners and a returned stake from the nine bets sees a small profit. I’m really itching to do some multiples again but I think I’ll stay with this approach until there’s something that looks really strong.